When \u201cManual Cinema\u2019s Christmas Carol\u201d debuted in 2020, we were throttled in the maw of a pandemic that turned the world into a hellscape. But as the year entered its final weeks, Manual Cinema\u2019s intimate, intricate, livestreamed, puppet-centric take on Charles Dickens\u2019 classic offered a reflection of devastating loss and a reminder that creativity and joy can co-exist alongside chaos and grief.<\/p>\n
Running through Dec. 28 at the Loop\u2019s Studebaker Theatre, Manual Cinema\u2019s 75-minute production (devised by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter) has lost none of its cinematic richness. A merger of light and shadow, puppets and humans, original music and an evocative set, \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d reflects the harsh, hopeful duality of a world defined by devastation and wonder.<\/p>\n
As in its previous incarnations (it debuted a live version at Writers Theatre in Glencoe in 2022 and moved to the Studebaker in 2023), the 2020-set plot focuses on Aunt Trudy (LaKecia Harris, reprising her role), a widow of seemingly intractable bitterness. Trudy is reluctantly carrying on a Christmas tradition she has always loathed: Her late husband Joe\u2019s annual puppet show recreation of \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d A morass of grief and rage, Trudy is in no mood for Christmas, much less anchoring a puppet show on Zoom. The only worthwhile line in all of Dickens\u2019 story, Trudy rails, is \u201cBah humbug!\u201d The ghosts soon come for her, just as they did for Scrooge, and their stories become entwined with alchemic impact.<\/p>\n
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Manual Cinema merges 19th-century literature with 21st-century flair. The ghost of Christmas Present has \u201chella\u201d siblings. There are stab-sharp references to a health care system that lets children like Tiny Tim die and a monetary system where the incredibly rich get richer while the poor, like the family of Scrooge\u2019s clerk Bob Cratchit, live on the threshold of starvation.<\/p>\n
Harris anchors the production, manipulating puppets and spanning the entire emotional spectrum as Trudy\u2019s world parallels Scrooge\u2019s, her isolation and curdled emotions incrementally blooming into heartfelt connections with others around her.<\/p>\n
Harris is working with a phalanx of virtually invisible puppeteers (Felix Mayes, Jeffrey Paschal and Lizi Breit through Dec. 21, Kevin Michael Wesson from Dec. 24-28) who bring a wealth of characters to life, ranging from Scrooge\u2019s estranged family to a towering, terrifying Ghost of Christmas Future. (Keep your eye on the latter; they\u2019ve got a jaw-dropping exit straight out of your worst nightmare.)<\/p>\n
As the human wood-and-paper puppets take the tiny stage, they\u2019re replicated on a large screen hovering above them in Manual Cinema\u2019s \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d at the Studebaker Theater.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The set (designed by Manual Cinema\u2019s collective of artists) features a toy theater framed by Christmas lights, perched like an altar above dozens of packing boxes. As the remarkably human wood-and-paper puppets take the tiny stage, they\u2019re replicated with 70-mm clarity on a large screen hovering above them.<\/p>\n Every meticulously etched detail \u2014 the jumping, jovial enthusiasm of the Ghost of Christmas Present, the starry rooftops of London, the tears of a jilted lover, the dripping umbrellas of top-hatted gentlemen \u2014 becomes magnified to an effect that feels both intimate and epic.<\/p>\n Some of the most moving scenes occur when dialogue stops and scrolls depicting decades in Trudy\u2019s life with Joe unfurl. Flirtatious courtship morphs into loving domesticity, which morphs into bickering, discord, disease, death and the regret of things left unsaid. Another scroll depicts a breathtaking barrage of years in Trudy\u2019s life, images from the 1990s going into the aughts and up to 2020.<\/p>\n
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